Sols 2497-2498: SAM is GO for analyzing the Glen Etive drill sample

This morning, after seeing that the redo of the SAM Preconditioning in Monday's plan was successful, the SAM team was ready to drop-off four portions to SAM for evolved gas analysis. The power demands of SAM left little room for other activities on the first sol of the plan, but we were able to fit in some additional science on the second sol. In the afternoon of sol 2498, we'll be doing targeted science, including Mastcam and ChemCam, of the targets "Liberton" and "Torberg" to get the chemistry of the other plates near the drill target. There are also some standard environmental observations, such as Mastcam tau and crater rim extinction imaging and Navcam imaging to search for dust devils clouds. We also, on the second sol, are getting another data readout from CheMin on the sample we dropped off on Monday. The results of the SAM analysis will be available prior to planning on Friday, and based on those results, the SAM team will determine whether to do additional analysis on the Glen Etive drill sample in the weekend plan. The attached Navcam image shows the view of the Mount Sharp summit from our current location.

Written by Ashley Stroupe, Mission Operations Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory